/*
 * Copyright � 2002-2011 the original author or authors.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

namespace Spring.Aop;

/// <summary>
/// Used to obtain the current "target" of an AOP invocation
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>
/// <p>
/// This target will be invoked via reflection if no around advice chooses
/// to end the interceptor chain itself.
/// </p>
/// <p>
/// If an <see cref="Spring.Aop.ITargetSource"/> is <c>"static"</c>, it
/// will always return the same target, allowing optimizations in the AOP
/// framework. Dynamic target sources can support pooling, hot swapping etc.
/// </p>
/// <p>
/// Application developers don't usually need to work with target sources
/// directly: this is an AOP framework interface.
/// </p>
/// </remarks>
/// <author>Rod Johnson</author>
/// <author>Aleksandar Seovic (.NET)</author>
public interface ITargetSource
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The <see cref="System.Type"/> of the target object.
    /// </summary>
    Type TargetType { get; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Is the target source static?
    /// </summary>
    /// <value>
    /// <see langword="true"/> if the target source is static.
    /// </value>
    bool IsStatic { get; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns the target object.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns>The target object.</returns>
    /// <exception cref="System.Exception">
    /// If unable to obtain the target object.
    /// </exception>
    object GetTarget();

    /// <summary>
    /// Releases the target object.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="target">The target object to release.</param>
    void ReleaseTarget(object target);
}
